sky
by Radio Rascal
Summary: RAAM chaperones Skorge on his first trip to the surface of Sera.


**this also won't make total sense without context from The Rise of RAAM.**

 **i love their relationship...i am thriving, my friends.**

* * *

Skorge stopped in his tracks, staring up the rising tunnel. "RAAM, where are we _really_ going?"

RAAM, a dozen or so feet ahead of him, looked over his shoulder. He was having a hard time restraining his grin. "I told you, your birthday present."

"There aren't going to be any Reavers up there. You said we were going to see wild Reavers."

"You don't know that we won't."

"That's the surface."

Though he'd never been to the surface before, he knew it couldn't be anything else. No rock was that shade of deep, abyssal blue; what he was seeing now was a sliver of _sky_.

RAAM nodded.

Despite himself, Skorge moved forward. "How often have you been coming here?"

"Not long. I never told you because you're the type who'd follow me, and you _were_ a kid until yesterday."

"But now that I'm of age, you don't care about endangering my life?"

"You're a responsible adult who can endanger his own life as he desires. I'm only enabling you."

As he approached the surface, Skorge silently admitted that he didn't feel much like an adult. He felt small and vulnerable. But RAAM was here with him, and it wasn't like he'd seen any immediate disasters in his last vision. It would be fine. Probably.

He did want to see it, a little, just for a second or two.

His first steps on the surface were anticlimatic. The ground didn't feel different, didn't look different, and the air was only slightly strange. They stood on a ridge, overlooking a mass expanse of green. Those must have been trees-they were bigger than he'd heard.

Everything was still.

It was dark.

"I thought the surface would be bright," Skorge said. "I've heard stories of men going blind in the light of Sera's sun."

"The sun's already set," RAAM replied.

"Set?"

"It...goes away." The Theron scratched his head with a bulky finger. "It just sort of goes down through the sky and disappears. Then it gets dark for a while."

"Oh."

"It doesn't get totally dark, though. There are the moons and stars."

Within a few seconds, lights appeared in the sky, seemingly from nowhere. Skorge watched, transfixed. They were like the innumerable eyes of some vast and horrible god, waking up to gaze down on him. For a moment he was very afraid, then it passed, replaced with a dreamy awe.

"You won't see the moons for a while, but they should both be full tonight."

"Full?"

"Sera casts a shadow, and the moons move through it. Sometimes they're in the shadow completely, and become invisible. Other times, they're nowhere near the shadow, so you can see all of them."

"This world is constantly changing," Skorge muttered. There were so many stars he couldn't count them. He felt he might detach from the ground and float up forever into that dusty, sparkling abyss. He wasn't scared, but he thought he might be, if he weren't so dazzled.

"Do you like it?"

He nodded.

"I figured you would adapt better to night," RAAM said. He gave a quick glance at their surroundings, then sat down.

It was quiet for a while. Two white discs rose from behind the trees, brightening the world with cold light. Everything took on a pale hue. After some time, Skorge lowered his gaze from the sky. His neck ached.

"Will we see humans here?" he asked, his voice a little tight.

"No," RAAM chuckled. "This place is far from any civilization."

Skorge relaxed. "Have you seen it? Human civilization?"

"...Once. But I've never approached them!"

Skorge nodded towards the trees. "What's over there?"

"That's a forest. There's animals and stuff I guess. I've never gone."

He considered it for a moment, then decided this was far enough. The rest of the surface could wait for another day. He sat next to RAAM, taking in the smells and the noises happening on the edge of his senses. It was a strange place, this Sera. But he didn't dislike it.

"Thank you, brother."

"For endangering your life?"

"Better than the Lambent." That was the only time he would permit himself to think of the war tonight. The glittering abyss commanded his attention, and he was willing to surrender to it.


End file.
